Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Baku International Multiculturalism Centre Azerbaijani Multiculturalism Textbook for Higher Education

legitimate interests is punished by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Article 109 (persecution), Article 11 (racial discrimination, apartheid), Article 283 (prevention of national, racial, social or religious hatred and hostility) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan also give a legal basis to opposing discrimination and ensuring tolerant coexistence in Azerbaijan.

President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree ‘On additional measures to strengthen the promotion of religious culture, tolerance, interreligious and intercultural dialogue’ on 18 January 2014. This decree was intended to keep the issues at the top of the agenda.

Stirring up national, racial, social or religious discord, humiliating national dignity, restricting the rights of citizens, or giving them preferential treatment, on grounds of national, racial or religious affiliation pose a serious threat to multicultural society and to the security of the state. In this context, the section of Article 283 of the Criminal Code devoted to ‘Crimes against state power’ is a manifestation of the state’s attention to this problem. It should also be noted that between 2009 and 2013 only one person was charged with spreading national, racial, social and religious hatred and hostility, which is the real statistical indicator of the state’s efforts to oppose such hatred.

One of the important indicators of multiculturalism in Azerbaijan is the existence of linguistic diversity and the state’s consistent policy aimed at protecting this diversity. The right of minorities and ethnic groups to use their own language is clearly expressed in Article 45 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which says that ‘everybody has the right to use their mother tongue; everybody has the right to an education and upbringing and to creative work in their language of choice. Nobody can be deprived of the right to use their mother tongue.’

The state creates opportunities for the minorities and ethnic groups to organize groups and individual classes in their own languages in preschool educational institutions, in schools of general education and primary schools. Azerbaijan’s law ‘On education’ enshrines ‘the right to choose the language of education’.

Moreover, Azerbaijan’s law ‘On culture’ enshrines ‘the right of all to perform any activity in conformity with their interests and abilities and their freedom to choose any language for their creative work’.

The state ensures legal guarantees to protect language diversity in trials in court. According to Article 26 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, trials are conducted in the official language of the Republic of Azerbaijan or in the language of the majority residing in the relevant area. The expression of these constitutional provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code has created great opportunities for the minorities and ethnic groups to ensure linguistic diversity in their areas of residence. The phenomenon of multiculturalism, which has developed historically to become an everyday part of the life of the people, is a political manifestation with important legal foundations. As social relations develop, legal norms are renewed in conformity with them. It can be said with confidence that the existing legal base in Azerbaijan creates real conditions for the further improvement of the Azerbaijani model of multiculturalism and the consistent measures undertaken by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan have turned multiculturalism into the way of life of the Azerbaijani people and into the state policy of Azerbaijan.

Section II

Chapter 5

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Azerbaijani Multiculturalism